It has long been known that absorbent articles such as conventional absorbent articles (e.g., diapers, adult incontinence articles, feminine hygiene pads) offer the benefit of receiving and containing urine and/or other bodily exudates (e.g., feces, menses, mixture of feces and urine, mixture of menses and urine, etc.). To effectively contain bodily exudates, the article should provide a snug fit around the waist and legs of a wearer.
Current diaper designs frequently include the use of a barrier leg cuff to prevent leakage of bodily exudates and an outer cuff which provides a covering over the barrier leg cuff to minimize the visibility of exudates through the barrier cuff and provide a secondary means to capture bodily exudates should they breach the barrier leg cuff. The barrier leg cuff may be made using a hydrophobic nonwoven and may be disposed on the body-facing surface of the absorbent article or connected to the body-facing surface of the film backsheet layer. The barrier leg cuff may be a substantially liquid impervious layer that prevents bodily exudates from passing out of the sides of the article and may also be highly breathable, allowing outside air to reach the skin to help maintain a healthy level of skin hydration. In many current diapers, the outer cuff comprises the polymeric film layer of the backsheet to provide the high opacity required to cover the barrier leg cuff as well as to prevent molten adhesive from passing through the cuff to the garment-facing surface of the article during manufacturing. The outer cuff contains the outer leg elastic strands, which create the contraction forces and gathers, and can be sandwiched between the cuff material and backsheet material. The elastic strands in the leg cuffs are typically joined with molten adhesive during manufacture, and the hot adhesive has the potential to pass through nonwoven materials during manufacture, causing contamination of manufacturing lines as well as the potential for stickiness on the outside surface of the article. The polymeric film is generally used to prevent these issues, however, results in a plastic-like look as well as a noisy application process.
Because of manufacturing tolerances when cutting, tracking, and combining materials, the outer leg elastic strands are generally spaced inboard from the longitudinal edge of the article in the crotch region. This prevents inadvertent cutting or exposure of the outer leg elastic strands during the manufacturing process. This design results in the outermost portion of the longitudinal edge of the product not continuously contacting closely to the skin of the user during wear. Thus, the ability of the elastic strand(s) to control the edge of the article diminishes as the distance between the outermost elastic and the edge increases, leading to a more random distribution of larger gathers which contact the skin at larger intervals or sometimes not at all. This effect can lead to user perception that the diaper may leak where the longitudinal edge does not contact the skin of the user. In addition, many articles currently available contain only two to three outer leg elastics per side to create the gathers, increasing the difficulty of achieving the desired appearance of a wide finished leg cuff or more garment-like cuff such as the elasticized hemmed edge of the arm cuff of a sweater. If the elastics are spaced more closely, the result is a narrow section of elasticized zone, which results in a less finished, less comfortable, and less clothing-like appearance. If the elastics are spaced farther apart, the gathers can appear to separate further from the skin of the user, leading to a perception of potential leakage risk. As discussed above, this is driven by having less control of the gathers between strands of increasing separation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an absorbent article with a folded outer cuff design having finished edges with elastics that are close to the edge to maintain a close proximity to the skin to create improved fit, a more aesthetically pleasing, clothing-like design and improved leakage protection.
Further, achieving such aesthetically pleasing, clothing-like absorbent article designs (e.g., by including folded outer cuff designs having finished edges) will generally result in articles that have a wider outermost-to-outermost elastic spacing. Because the outermost-to-outermost elastic cross dimensional length determines the effective width of the chassis, one drawback of these designs is that the effective crotch width is greater when compared to traditional absorbent articles. Articles with wider effective crotch widths tend to fit lower in the crotch, and the extra material creates a “c” shape cupping around the crotch area. Accordingly, the “c” shape cupping around the crotch area is larger for absorbent articles with folded outer cuff designs having finished edges versus traditional outer cuff designs. Moms often view the larger “c” shape cupping negatively as sagging and/or poor fitting in the crotch area.
Accordingly, it is of continued interest to provide an economically viable disposable absorbent article with the ability to minimize the negative effects of bodily extrudate leaks, while also reducing the appearance of sagging. To that end, it is of continued interest to provide a disposable absorbent article having sufficient retention capability to safely and cleanly retain bodily extrudate away from the wearer's clothing and/or skin throughout the expected time of article use, while also maintaining the desired appearance of a proper fit on the body.